May, 1916 
COLLECTING JAPANESE COLOR PRINTS 
GARDNER TEALL 
31 
One peculiar phase of collecting is the way certain objects, without any apparent reason, creep into popularity. 
That is the case of Japanese prints. Reports from dealers in various parts of the country show that the demand 
for them has tripled in the past two years. And the vogue is growing. If you want to start a collection or 
add to the ones you have, write The Collector's Mart, House & Garden, 440 Fourth Avenue, New York City 
W HILE the canons of art 
are inflexible and en¬ 
during, fashion changes. There 
are those to whom only cer¬ 
tain phases or fashions of art 
appeal—to some only the art of 
antiquity, to some that of mediae¬ 
val or that of renaissance times, 
while others find interest only in 
current manifestations. Never¬ 
theless, one owes it to the intel¬ 
ligence to permit the mind to be 
open to understanding, in little 
as well as in great things. It is 
not the knowledge a man puts 
into his brain that wearies it, 
but rather the abuse of the 
means of acquiring it. Indeed, 
there are those who almost make 
it a profession not to cram the 
head; vacuity with such becomes 
a pastime, again a fetish. 
You, Gentle Reader, may 
wonder what all this has to do 
with collecting Japanese color 
prints. It is this: that the study 
of these color prints, the pleas¬ 
ure one takes in collecting them, 
and the certain joy to be had in 
their possession is, in the first 
place, founded on approaching 
the subject with an openness of 
mind that can conceive and can 
measure a viewpoint which is, 
perhaps, totally unlike one’s own 
preconceived idea of a thing. 
The Missing Third Dimen¬ 
sion 
Our own art having though 
it does, form, color, composition 
and perspective, presents to the 
aesthetic appreciation works quite different in intent from 
those of oriental artists. Japanese painting and Chinese paint¬ 
ing, for instance, differ, to quote an eminent authority on the 
subject, W. von Seidlitz, from modern occidental painting 
in this, that it deliberately forgoes all means of producing an 
immediate illusion. It knows nothing of the third dimension, 
but confines itself to decorative effects in one plane. At the 
same time the extraordinarily 
developed powers of observa¬ 
tion in the Japanese enable them 
to convey to their work an un¬ 
usual amount of life and spirit. 
This being so, one will realize 
that an appreciation of oriental 
painting, held by an occidental 
mind, betokens an intellectual 
development in that mind be¬ 
yond the ordinary (which is to 
say, the occidental mind has led 
its intellect to weigh and con¬ 
sider the oriental viewpoint that 
has produced a work of art. and 
so, in turn, can understand it 
when such a work is placed be¬ 
fore him). 
The color prints of Japan of 
the 18th Century bore stronger 
marks of kinship to Japanese 
painting than do those of the 
19th Century. These early 
works are, of course, held more 
highly in esteem by the Japanese 
themselves and hy the advanced 
collector. But as the very lovely 
19th Century works are access¬ 
ible to everyone (and to the 
moderate purse as well), it is 
this latter class of prints that 
will probably engage the begin¬ 
ner’s attention. 
The earlier prints were the 
outcome of Japanese painting, 
but likewise had their inception 
as book-illustrations, later to oc¬ 
cupy a position as independent 
works. 
Essential Characteristics 
In all Japanese prints there 
will be noted certain characteristics. Shadows, the play of 
light and shade ( chiaroscuro ) have no proper place in the 
Japanese color print (nor, indeed, in Japanese painting). The 
Japanese artist considers the shadow to be too ephemeral a 
thing to be worthy his consideration, though his skill could 
easily master its intricacies. Some of the color prints by 
Yeisen (1791-1851) prove this to be true. Again, the model- 
“A Belle of the Yoshiwara,” by Kersei Yusen (1792- 
1848). This print exhibits the particular employ¬ 
ment of shadows as independent notes when used by 
the Japanese color printers 
“A Snoivy Landscape," by Hiroshige (1796-1858), one 
of the most popular color print artists of Japan 
“Evening Glow at Siva," by Hiroshige. Fully 4,000 subjects 
are credited to this artist, yet fine copies are scarce 
